Glee January premiere recap: "Sadie Hawkins"

Letting the ladies take control

Recruiting my affection all over again, this female-empowering episode questions moral character and places all kinds of scrutiny with new challenges running amok.

Are you "Too Young to Be Bitter"?

In a hilarious discussion among the members of the "Too Young to Be Bitter" club (which by the end of the episode gets disbanded), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz) coins the idea of making the upcoming formal a Sadie Hawkins theme, when the girls ask the boys to be their date, rather than waiting around in anticipation and driving themselves insane.

Finn (Cory Monteith) decides to parlay this idea into the latest Glee meeting, where the ladies will sing to the guy they want to go to the dance with. Very early on Kitty (Becca Tobin) tries to make her mark on Jake (Jacob Artist), but it's pretty obvious that Marley (Melissa Benoist) had her heart set on him, too.

In the least unpredictable series of events: Brittany (Heather Morris) asks Sam (Chord Overstreet), Marley does ask Jake, and the rest of the Glee team seems to end up with random women from the Too Young to Be Bitter crew by the end of the episode.

The most startling conflicts, which made for some significantly pivotal moments: Jake was made a very direct and overt offer by Kitty to have guaranteed sex if he took her to the dance — and he was considering it throughout the episode! Even when he was with Marley, and while assuring her he would never hurt her, we see him look longingly at Kitty (who ends up taking his brother Puck (Mark Salling)).

Tina + Blaine + Sam = love?!

Another upcoming story line, is the one that took most of Glee club by surprise: Tina's affection for the very gay Blaine (Darren Criss), who, by the way, is very much starting to grow on me! She asks him to the dance and he says no, marking one of the most humiliating moments for Tina, but an awkward one to watch. When she asks him why later, we see how close they are and how he admits he's crushing on Sam!

What.

Random plot line, but we shall see where it takes us! As if that weren't enough drama, Blaine and Tina almost appear to share a kiss! But it's interrupted by Sam's discovery that the Warblers may be using steroids. When they confront Finn with this information, they determine that if they can prove they used it during Sectionals, New Directions would win by default. Suddenly, everything starts to fall in place for the future of the Glee club.

Lima seems to be more exciting than New York these days...

Just prepare yourselves for my loathsome attack on Rachel (Lea Michele): The producers of Glee (no offense) seem to be rushing her and Brody's (Dean Geyer) romance. In this episode, you watch them suddenly spend all their time together and having Rachel talk about love?! Love?! If that were not absurd enough, Brody was 45 minutes late to a dinner she planned, and she freaked out on him. Instead of calling her crazy, he lays on borderline-Shakespearan sweet nothings and swore he would never be late again. Their affection seemed way too fast and all too forced, but perhaps there is a reason for it... somewhere down the line.

Her best friend Kurt (Chris Colfer), who seemingly gets left out in the cold while she stays warm with Brody, decides to make his own friends. And apparently, he really truly is done with Blaine because he makes no mention of him whatsoever, particularly when he asks out the senior and founder of Adam's Apples, a club that Rachel tells Kurt is social suicide. He tries to resist joining the club, but the charm of the older man lures him enough and we will certainly see where this takes NYADA's newest student.

My favorite song covers

Best songs featured on this episode? Marley and Brittany's rendition of "Tell Him" by The Exciters, and the Glee guy's rendition of "No Scrubs" by TLC (this was e-p-i-c). Which song made me a little uneasy because I wasn't sure if it was good or horrible? "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot, done by Adam's Apples who performed for Kurt at NYADA.

So what do you think readers? Do you think this season will be the best one yet?

Photos courtesy of Fox

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